Intragenus (Campylomormyrus) and intergenus hybrids in mormyrid fish: physiological and histological investigations of the electric organ ontogeny

Publication date: Available online 17 January 2017 Source:Journal of Physiology-Paris Author(s): Frank Kirschbaum, Linh Nguyen, Stephanie Baumgartner, Linda Chi, Rene Wolfart, Khouloud Elarbani, Hari Eppenstein, Yevheniia Korniienko, Lilian Guido-Böhm, Victor Mamonekene, Marianne Vater, Ralph Tiedemann African weakly electric mormyrid fish show a high diversity of their electric organ discharge (EOD) both across and within genera. Thanks to a recently developed technique of artificial reproduction in mormyrid fish, we were able to perform hybridizations between different genera and within one genus (Campylomormyrus). The hybrids of intergenus hybridizations exhibited different degrees of reduced survival related to the phylogenetic distance of the parent species: hybrids of the crosses between C. rhynchophorus and its sister genus Gnathonemus survived and developed normally. Hybrids between C. rhynchophorus and a Mormyrus species (a more basal clade compared to Campylomormyrus s) survived up to 42 days and developed many malformations, e.g., at the level of the unpaired fins. Hybrids between C. numenius and Hippopotamyrus pictus (a derived clade, only distantly related to Campylomormyrus) only survived for two days during embryological development. Seven different hybrid combinations among five Campylomormyrus species (C. tamandua, C. compressirostris, C. tshokwe, C. rhynchophorus, C. numenius) were performed. The aim of the hybridizations was to combine specie...
Source: Journal of Physiology Paris - Category: Physiology Source Type: research